Author Aaron Hamburger transports the reader on an immigrant’s journey from Russia to Cuba to Detroit in his novel Hotel Cuba. It’s a personal story because it relates the travels of his grandmother from the village of David-Horodok in Belarus to Cuba and then onto Detroit.
It’s personal for me as well. My family is also from the village of David-Horodok, and I wrote an article in The Detroit Jewish News where there is a memorial to those who perished in World War II due to the Nazis. I, like the author, grew up in Detroit.
Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Hamburger about his book Hotel Cuba on a Zoom call with Descendants of David-Horodok. He relates a fascinating story of how the book came about. He met with Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Detroit to talk about immigration, and she suggested he write a book about his grandmother’s plight. Through family interviews, recordings, research and trips to Havana, Hamburger weaves a rich tale of two sisters travelling to unknown countries.
I recently attended an event for Impact Palm Beaches. It’s group of dynamic, philanthropic women devoted to creating change through strategic grant making. The luncheon, held at the Kravis Center for Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, featured author Diane Bergner.
Eileen Berman, a Palm Beach philanthropist and former financial advisor for UBS, interviewed Bergner about her former role as the vice president of philanthropy at the Kravis Center, and they discussed her book the Royal Coconut Beach Lunch Club. Bergner shared her philanthropy acumen. She also highlighted her debut novel where the protagonist is a fund raiser for a performing arts center. Many in the audience wanted to know if her novel was based on real people. Bergner will leave it to the readers of the Royal Coconut Beach Lunch Club to decide. Bergner also confesses “Fiction is a work of art where the imagination can go wild.”
President Lisa LaFrance of Impact Palm Beaches addressed the group, which is based on Impact100 founded by Wendy Steele. Members donate $1,000 annually and for every 100 women, the group gives a $100,000 donation to a local nonprofit.
Diane Bergner (left) is interviewed by Eileen Berman.
Diane Bergner flanks Karen Ruben, author of Ruff Riders, and myself at the Impact Palm Beaches event.
I had the opportunity to interview Guy Stern several years ago for my column in the Detroit Jewish News. This remarkable man passed away recently at the age of 101, just before his 102nd birthday. He came to the United States to stay with an uncle and escape Nazi Germany, hoping his family would follow. Unfortunately, his family perished in the Holocaust.
Guy Stern was honored as the “Veteran of the Game,” at the University of Michigan in October, 2018. This photo appeared in the December 21, 2023 edition the Detroit Jewish News. Michigan photography
His fluency in German and his intellectual prowess enabled him to be part of an elite intelligence unit called the Ritchie Boys. He was trained as a prisoner of war interrogator. In my interview, he relayed a chilling story about interviewing a member of his athletic team as a youngster. He disguised his voice and then asked questions revealing names of friends and family. The prisoner was astonished and frightened. He received the Bronze star for his service.
Since I was a language major from Wayne State University, we spoke about language and authors. He was a distinguished professor at Wayne State University in German literature and culture and an expert in the influential German writer Goethe.
His obituaries in the Detroit Jewish News and the New York Times tell of his illustrious life, numerous awards, charitable work and appearance on 60 minutes. Please click here to read the fascinating obituary by Detroiter Alan Muskovitz in the Detroit Jewish News.
David-Horodok history teacher Gennadiy Grigorievich Bosovets with his students at the sculpture in the town square.
A history teacher ignites the flame remembering the Jewish descendants of the small town of David-Horodok, Belarus.
Some educators leave a legacy to their students. History teacher Gennadiy Grigorievich Bosovets of David-Horodok in Belarus takes it one inspirational step further. He initiated the creation of a monument in remembrance of the Jewish descendants of David-Horodok in the town square.
Carla Schwartz Contributing Writer
Many of the descendants today, fondly known as David-Horodokers, live in Metro Detroit. The Detroit David-Horodok Organization has 600 families on the mailing list, while the Israeli David-Horodok Organization has 200. Both groups include members worldwide and include second- and third-generation Holocaust survivors. David-Horodok, Davyd-Haradok and David-Goradok are just some of the spellings of the town.
According to the website Shtetl Routes, the city was named after Prince David, grandson of Yaroslav the Wise and founded in 1100 with Jews settling in the 1500s. The Jewish community flourished in the 1800s, with three synagogues. Due to pogroms and antisemitism in Russia, many of the descendants left during the late 1800s and continued to leave until 1939.
From 1921 to 1939, David-Horodok was part of Poland, and afterwards the city became part of Russia. The Nazis entered the town in 1941 and shot 7,000 men, women and children in the forest. When the Soviets entered the town in 1944, no Jews were left in David-Horodok.
Today, there are no Jewish residents in the city.
But the memory of the Jewish presence is alive, thanks to historians and David-Horodokers. At the mass grave site, there is a monument established by the Israeli organization in 2009. Bosovets teaches his students about the area. When he noticed the path to the memorial was difficult for visitors to reach, he conceived the idea to construct another sculpture in the city center.
This project was funded by both the Detroit and Israeli organizations of descendants of David-Horodok.
The wood and granite sculpture, by local artisan Sergey Zhilevich, has a carving of a father and son on one side and a mother and daughter on the other.
The new sculpture not only marks the path to the mass grave site, but also relays the Jewish history in town. This major endeavor included securing funds, permits, design and installation.
The prominent sculpture of wood and granite was designed by local artisan Sergey Zhilevich with a carving of a father and son on one side and a mother and daughter on the other. There is an inscription in English, Hebrew and Russian: “In memory of the 500-year-old Jewish community of David-Horodok, brutally annihilated by the Germans 1941-1942.”
The monument was completed in 2020, but due to COVID, the dedication was postponed. Special ceremonies for International Holocaust Remembrance Day were held on Jan. 27, 2023, at the mass grave site and at the new sculpture in the town square. Candles were lit and flowers placed as Bosovets reiterated the plight of the Jews from David-Horodok to his students.
Amy Friedman Brody of West Bloomfield and Roz Blanck of Franklin, are co-presidents of the Detroit David-Horodok Organization and believe this sculpture of remembrance evokes hope and is making an indelible imprint.
According to Blanck, “The monuments created are extraordinary because future generations will learn about the history of the Jewish community in David-Horodok.”
Connecting David-Horodokers
The Facebook page of the Descendants of David-Horodok connects landsmen and friends worldwide.
When former Detroiter Cheri Eisenberg, currently living in Atlanta, visited David-Horodok in 2010 with more than 100 David-Horodokers, she was enthralled by the history. “The trip greatly impacted me, and in 2013, I was motivated to start a Facebook page to connect other landsmen.”
Many of her relatives perished in David-Horodok, while some of her Eisenberg family settled in Detroit. She explains that the page evolved fusing her interest in Yiddishkeit and her family roots.
There are 1,500 followers, mostly with roots in David-Horodok, but others from neighboring towns like Stolin, Rubel and Turov joined. The page connects people with cousins in Israel, Argentina, Chile and all over North America. Recently, a family in Switzerland connected with cousins in Israel.
As the administrator of the page, Eisenberg feels rewarded. “Opening the doors to family connections is without a doubt the most rewarding dividend of our Descendants of David-Horodok Facebook page.”
Carla Eisenberg Schwartz is a former columnist for the Detroit Jewish News and blogger at www.motownsavvy.com. Her father, Abe Eisenberg, was born in David-Horodok as well as her maternal grandmother, Ida Szusterman Mittler.
I recently attended the RDK Melanoma Foundation 23rd Annual Luncheon at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. The event with more than 400 attendees was ultra chic and included a fashion show by internationally acclaimed fashion designer Monique Lhuillier.
Debbie Schwarzberg created this foundation in memory of her brother who lost his life to melanoma in hopes of educating others about the disease. The annual luncheon is the main fundraiser for the foundation which address the prevention and detection of skin cancer.
The gowns were feminine, sophisticated and red-carpet worthy. My favorite is the upper left with a floral design on tulle. And as equally delicious as the fashions is the yummy, chocolate dessert, above.
Lhuiller has a cadre of Hollywood devotees including Reese Witherspoon, Taylor Swift, Gwyneth Paltrow and more. Reese Witherspoon wrote the forward to the coffee table book Monique Lhuiller: Dreaming of Fashion and Glamour.
The sponsors of the luncheon included Tampa General Hospital, the Leder Foundation and Sun Capital Partners Foundation.
As we enter the summer months and sun is strong, please wear sunscreen!
Heart and home are always a winning combination. On the March 10, the Kips Bay Show Decorator Show House Palm Beach will be the site of a “Heartful Evening,” to benefit Simply From the Heart. I’ve written about the charity Simply from the Heart on this blog, and I’ve featured images about the Kips Bay Show House when I edited Style magazine, years ago.
This year’s event starts at 5:30 on the evening of March 10 and promises to be spectacular. Not only can you donate to benefit a great cause, but you will be able to see a fabulous home on Flager Dr. in West Palm Beach, Florida decorated by prestigious interior designers.
Simply from the Heart is a nonprofit organization raising the self-esteem for severely ill patients through therapeutic treatments such as massages, manicures, pedicures and more.
I wrote this article about Denise Lutz for the November issue of Downtown NewsMagazine, Birmingham, Michigan.
The saying “Jack of all trades, master of none,” applies to many individuals but not to former Detroiter Denise Lutz. Lutz excels at everything. Friends describe her as a Renaissance woman for she is a photographer, equestrian, philanthropist, pilot, animal advocate and car aficionado.
And wait. . .there’s more. She just added published author to this lofty list. Lutz recently returned to her hometown to celebrate her first novel, Thumbs. She debuted the novel along with a landscape photography exhibit at the Robert Kidd Gallery in downtown Birmingham. Lutz’s “Heaven on Earth” exhibit featured 20 signed limited-edition photographs shot in Michigan, Kentucky and Switzerland. Always charity minded, she donated the proceeds of the art sale to local photojournalist Linda Solomon’s nonprofit, Pictures of Hope, helping children express their thoughts with a camera.
According to Lutz, Birmingham was the perfect venue for this celebration. “Detroit is my roots, and I used to work around the corner from the gallery,” she said.
Although she currently lives in Kentucky on historic Glen Lake Farm, Motown is part of her soul. Lutz grew up on the tree-lined streets of Lathrup Village with extended family nearby. Her idyllic childhood included summers Up North in a log cabin on a lake enjoying all sorts of outdoor activities, including horseback riding. Her interest in aviation began at an early age as her dad would fly the family to the cabin. After graduating from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, she entered the advertising world, working local stalwarts W.B. Doner and J.Walter Thompson, becoming the first female art director in Detroit. Then, when she married auto executive Bob Lutz, of GM and Ford fame, she became the quintessential corporate wife wearing ballgowns, meeting dignitaries and fundraising for nonprofits.
After her divorce from Lutz, she wanted a different locale and decided to move to Kentucky to be closer to family, create her horse farm and begin a new life chapter.
“I decided I have a lot to say and share, and I knew how to write a bit, having been in advertising,” she said.
She began writing nonfiction with a partner and decided to break out on her own with a novel. A book agent questioned her fiction writing skills. Never shying away from a challenge, Lutz attended writing seminars in New York and programs at the Carnegie Center for Literacy in Lexington.
“I knew I loved outrageous, quirky characters,” she said. Thumbs, a comic thriller, tells the story of sweet Catharine, married to the inventor of sexting, who blackmails personnel. All goes awry with laugh-aloud antics when Catherine becomes an assassin’s bait.
“Denise Lutz has the lightning-fast mind, razor-sharp wit and fabulously dark sense of humor that would make masters of the craft from Hitchcock to Hiaasen giggle admirably,” said Erin Chandler, of Rabbit House Press, the book’s publisher.
This is certainly a debut novel as Lutz has many plot lines from her professional and personal life and looks forward to more publications. She describes herself as independent, appreciative and someone who listens to her own voice.
“I am curious and grateful for the blessings and strengths that I have, and for the beauty in life, the good friends, family and faith that sustain us through those events we cannot control.”
Neiman Marcus, in Troy, Michigan, recently hosted a fashionable event with three Detroit icons — Brenda Rosenberg (left), Suzy Farbman (middle) and Linda Solomon. Not only are these women known for their stylish looks, but they are authors of dynamic books. They are also friends, and I’m proud to say that they are my friends too.
When I wrote about Brenda previously in the former magazine Style, I described her as bold, bodacious and beautiful. Well, she’s so much more. For the past several years, she has been on a journey of peacemaking, bringing together many ethnic and religious groups. Now, she is the author of Charmed, a memoir told through her charm bracelet. Brenda will be honored on Nov. 10 at the Trade Secrets event at the Detroit Marriott Troy.
Suzy Farbman is a past honoree of Trade Secrets, featured previously on Motown Savvy. She is an award-winning journalist and compelling story teller. She has covered design for national and Detroit publications. Her latest book, Detroit’s Cass Corridor & Beyond, is part memoir and part art book. Farbman includes personal photos of her homes in Franklin, Michigan and Sarasota Florida with photographs by Beth Singer.
In welcoming readers to her book, Suzy writes: “By opening our doors and telling our story in these pages through vivid images and anecdotes, I am sending a personal love letter to each reader. As you turn these pages, I invite you to celebrate with me the love of family, the joys of collecting, the resilience of one of the world’s great cities, and the brilliant diversity of Detroit’s artists.”
Linda Solomon is an award-winning photojournalist nationally and locally. I featured her on Motown Savvy when her book on Aretha Franklin the Queen Next Door was first published. As I posted before, Linda developed a trusted relationship with Franklin and documented her career. From Christmas parties to birthday bashes to recording sessions, this is a personal portrait of a Motown legend. Yes, the Pink Cadillac is prominent.
Linda’s passion is her Pictures of Hope project, helping children in need express their thoughts with a camera.
As you can see, these three fashionable women are extraordinary!
Here’s an article that I wrote for the Downtown NewsMagazine, Birmingham. It’s on Dr. Barry Franklin, who offers practical advice for any graduating student or entry-level professional in his new book. I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Franklin at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak, Michigan. You can go directly to the site https://www.downtownpublications.com/single-post/barry-a-franklin or read it here.
Barry A. Franklin, Ph.D, helps patients with heart health as director of preventative cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Beaumont Health, Royal Oak, and is the author of numerous academic papers and books. His recent publication is the book GPS for Success. Yet instead of reversing heart disease in this endeavor, he empowers a new mindset. He navigates the reader on a road to success by offering attainable strategies. His passion is studying successful people, which he acknowledges in this unique resource book for entry-level professionals and aspiring leaders.
His passionate journey began decades ago by setting his own goals. As a college student and gymnast at Kent State University, he mastered an iron cross maneuver on the still rings, which requires tremendous strength and perseverance. He then set his sights on graduate schools – University of Michigan and Penn State. He wrote his first book in 1984, and began envisioning himself as president of national organizations, which he achieved. While aiding heart patients during the day, at night he immersed himself in studying the habits of successful people and reading dozens of self-help books. Some of his favorites are Rhonda Bryne’s The Secret and The Success Principles by Jack Canfield.
“These books had a profound impact on me,” says Franklin. Canfield’s book particularly was a springboard for Franklin’s thinking about writing his own formula.
Franklin believes GPS for Success is distinctive because it’s an aggregate guide for success. “It’s one-stop shopping and the most comprehensive book on this topic ever written,” he explains.
Franklin observed a missing link in college education. “Students are not prepared adequately for the real world,” he explains. Soft skills like interactions with people, collaborations, accepting criticism, and active listening are a few examples of what’s not taught in basic curriculum. In that vein, in 2012, he developed a college course, “Success Strategies,” and began teaching it at Central Michigan University (CMU).
“Having witnessed, firsthand, Dr. Franklin’s presentation of this material to our students, I’m delighted that he has chronicled his life’s experiences and career advice into this invaluable resource,” says Thomas Masterson, dean of the Herbert H. & Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions at CMU. “It’s a must read for all students as it will help them succeed, not only in the classroom, but more importantly in life.”
Franklin taught the one credit course for five years to rave reviews and students began asking for a textbook.
GPS for Success is slated to be used as a textbook in professional advancement courses at Penn State University and the University of Michigan. This book took more than three years to complete, with many starts and stops. During COVID, Franklin sheltered in his home with his wife and finished the book. He hopes it will be his legacy, because he reveals his personal “ultimate success” is making a difference in young people’s lives.
There is an extensive index at the end of the book with additional references, as well as an appendix of inspiring quotes from Albert Einstein to J.K Rowling to Magic Johnson. Franklin’s favorite quote is from a bumper sticker – “You are your own fortune cookie.”
Perhaps the most illuminating quote is from Franklin himself. “I wrote this book to help young people entering the work force, to live the life that they imagine.”
My first trip, after not travelling since the pandemic, was to the country of Jordan. I chose this country because my family relocated there. I hardly knew anything about Jordan, and I was stunned to find a beautiful country, wonderful people, fabulous food and exhilarating sites. We stayed in Amman and visited Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea and Aqaba.
Amman is a typical bustling, major city except for the archaeological site the Citadel perched on a hill. I did not visit it personally, but it was beautiful to see from afar.
A trip to Jordan must include the ancient city of Petra. Although the architecture seems to be Greek and Roman inspired, Petra was built by the Nabateans, an Arab Bedouin tribe. The Romans eventually ruled the city. When you arrive to Petra, the entrance is breathtaking (see photo below).
My family rode on a donkey with a Bedouin guide (below), while I zigzagged through the mountains on a golf cart before I walked the open terrain. For an interesting historical article about the area, read this article from the History channel.
Wadi Rum is the desert with rich, orange sand. The classic movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed there. We took an all-terrain vehicle on bumpy ride with the backdrop of a mountainous view worthy of a picture postcard. Then we arrived at geodeisic domes (see below) or bubble tents. I guess you can see we went glamping. The arches, mountains and cliffs were breathtaking. Sleeping under the stars was beautiful.
The resort towns in Jordan are luxurious. We stayed in Aqaba with a view of the Red Sea. Then it was off to the Dead Sea, to swim and spa at at a luxury hotel. We treated ourselves to mud baths and sea salts. Please see a photo of my son below. After our spa treatment, my son described us as “glowing.” The photo below does not do it justice as I think we looked washed out!
Even if we did not sparkle, in my opinion, the trip and the adventure did!
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